John Cowper Powys
| birth_place = Shirley, Derbyshire, England | death_date = June | death_place = Blaenau Ffestiniog, Wales | occupation = Novelist, poet, lecturer, philosopher, and literary critic | alma_mater = Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University | nationality = English | period = 1915–1963 | genre = Novel, poetry | spouse = (1) Margaret Lyon (2) Phyllis Playter | notableworks = Wolf Solent (1929), A Glastonbury Romance (1932), Autobiography (1934), Owen Glendower (1941), Porius (1951)}} John Cowper Powys (8 October 1872 - 17 June 1963) was a Welsh poet, essayist, and bestselling novelist.John Cowper Powys, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. Web, July 24, 2015. Life Overview Although Powys published a collection of poems in 1896 and his debut novel in 1915, he did not gain success as a writer until he published the novel Wolf Solent in 1929. He was influenced by many writers, but he has been particularly seen as a successor to Thomas Hardy, and Wolf Solent, A Glastonbury Romance (1932), Weymouth Sands (1934), and Maiden Castle (1936), are often referred to as his Wessex novels. As with Hardy's novels, the landscape plays a major role in Powys's works, and an elemental philosophy is important in the lives of his characters. In 1934 he published his important Autobiography. Powys was also a highly successful itinerant lecturer, initially in England, and from 1905 until the early 1930s in the United States. Powys moved to Dorset, England, from America, in 1934 with his American partner Phyllis Playter, but in 1935 they moved to Corwen, North Wales. This moved led to the publication of two historical novels set in Wales: Owen Glendower]], 1941; and Porius: A Romance of the Dark Ages, 1951. Then in 1955 they moved to Blaenau Ffestiniog where Powys died in 1963. Youth Powys was born in Shirley, Derbyshire, in 1872, the son of Rev. Charles Francis Powys (1843–1923), who was vicar of Montacute, Somerset, for 32 years, and Mary Cowper (Johnson), a descendent of poet William Cowper.John Cowper Powys, Autobiography (1934). London: Macdonald, 1967. The most up-to-date biographical information is found in Morine Krissdottir's, Descents of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007. He came from a family of 11 children, many of whom were also talented. His 2 younger brothers Llewelyn Powys (1884-1939) and Theodore Francis Powys (1875-1953) were well-known writers, while his sister Philippa published a novel and some poetry. Another sister Marian Powys was an authority on lace and lace-making and published a book on this subject. His brother A.R. Powys was Secretary of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, and published a number of books on architectural subjects. John Cowper Powys studied at Sherborne School, and graduated from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, in June 1894. On 6 April 1896 he married Margaret Lyon. They had a son, Littleton Alfred, in 1902.Herbert Williams, John Cowper Powys. Bridgend, Wales: Seren,1997, 36, 44. Powys's earliest employment was teaching in girls’ schools in Brighton. and then Eastbourne.Autobiography (1967), pp.210, 244 His earliest published works were 2 highly derivative collections of poetry published in the 1890s. He worked from 1898 as an Extension lecturer throughout England, for both Oxford and Cambridge Universities.Kenneth Hopkins, John Cowper Powys: A selection from his poems. Hamilton, NY: Colgate University Press,1964, 13. Autobiography (1967), 223. Lecturer in America From 1905 to the early 1930s, Powys lectured in the USA for the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching, gaining a reputation as a charismatic speaker.Herbert Williams, John Cowper Powys, pp.52–3. He spent his summers in England. During this time he traveled the length and breadth of the US, as well as into Canada.Herbert Williams, p.55, Robin Paterson, "Powys in Canada: John Cowper Powys's Canadian Lectures". Powys Notes (1994/95, p.33. Powys's marriage was unsatisfactory, and Powys eventually lived a large part of each year in the USA, and had relationships with various women.Herbert Williams, pp.77, 70. An important woman in his life was American poet Frances Gregg, whom he met in Philadelphia in 1912.http://www.powys-lannion.net/Powys/America/Gregg.htm He was also a friend of famous dancer Isadora Duncan.Herbert Williams, John Cowper Powys, pp.83–4. Another friend and an important supporter in America was novelist Theodore Dreiser.Autobiography (1967), pp.528, 550–5. In 1921 he met Phyllis Playter, the 26-year-old daughter of industrialist and business man Franklin Playter.Morine Krissdottir's, Descents of Memory, pp.170 Eventually they established a permanent relationship, though he was unable to divorce his wife Margaret, who was a Catholic. However, he diligently supported Margaret and the education of their son.Morine Krissdottir, Descents of Memory, pp.72, 86–90, 170, 298. In the US he engaged in a public debate with philosopher Bertrand Russell on marriage, and he also debated with the philosopher and historian Will Durant.Autobiography (1967), p.535. Powys was also a witness in the obscenity trial of James Joyce's novel Ulysses,Morine Krissdottir's, Descents of Memory, pp.235–6; p.212; p.135. and was mentioned with approval in the autobiography of US feminist and anarchist, Emma Goldman. Powys would later share Goldman's support for the Spanish Revolution.Vision on fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution edited by David Porter, AK Press, 2006, p.48. New York (2011) where Powys lived in Greenwich Village.]] His first novel Wood and Stone, which Powys dedicated to Thomas Hardy, was published in 1915. This was followed by two collections of literary essays Visions and Revisions (1915) and Suspended Judgment (1916). In Confessions of Two Brothers (1916), a work that also contains a section by his brother Llewelyn, Powys writes about his personal philosophy, something he elaborated on in The Complex Vision (1920), his first full length work of popular philosophy. He also published three collections of poetry between 1916 and 1922. Politically, Powys described himself as an anarchist and was both anti-fascist and anti-Stalinist: "Powys already regarded fascism and Stalinism as appalling, but different, totalitarian regimes".H. Gustav Klaus and Stephen Thomas Knight, To Hell with Culture: Anarchism and Twentieth-Century British Literature. University of Wales Press, 2005. ISBN0708318983. p.127. It was not until 1929, with the novel Wolf Solent, that Powys achieved any critical or financial success.C. A. Coates. John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Nonle, 1982, p. 90. In that year Powys and Phyllis moved from Greenwich Village in New York City to rural upstate New York.Herbert Williams, p. 97. One of Powys's most admired novels, A Glastonbury Romance, published in 1932, sold well, though he made little if any money from it because of a libel lawsuit.Coates, p.90. Another important work, Autobiography, was published in 1934. Settling in Wales Then in June 1934 Powys and Phyllis left America and moved to England, living in Dorchester, the setting for the final Wessex novel, Maiden Castle, before eventually moving in July 1935 to Corwen, Denbighshire North Wales, with the help of the novelist James Hanley, who lived nearby.Herbert Williams, p. 109. Corwen was historically part of Edeirnion or Edeyrnion and an ancient commote of medieval Wales, once a part of the Kingdom of Powys.Family Search: "Edeirnion, Denbighshire Genealogy" There Powys immersed himself in Welsh literature, mythology and culture, including learning to read Welsh.Krissdottir pp. 330–31. The move inspired 2 major historical novels with Welsh settings, Owen Glendower (1941) and Porius (1951). Margaret Powys died in 1947, and his son Littleton Alfred in 1954.Morine Krissdottir's, Descents of Memory, pp. 370, 407. In May 1955 they moved, for the last time, to Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales. John Cowper Powys died in 1963 and Phyllis Playter in 1982.See Powys's Autobiography (1967) and Descents of Memory by Morine Krissdottir. , where Powys lived from 1955 until he died in 1963]] Writing Poetry Powys's originally published 2 books of poetry: Odes and other poems (1896) and Poems (1899), collections which have "echoes … of Tennyson, Arnold, Swinburne, among contemporaries, and of John Milton and Wordsworth and Keats". These were published with the assistance of his cousin Ralph Shirley, who was a director of William Rider & Son, their publisher. In the summer of 1905 Powys composed "The Death of God," an epic poem "modelled on the blank verse of Milton, Keats, and Tennyson" that was published as Lucifer in 1956.Autobiography (1967), p.338. Lucifer was published by Macdonald. There were three further volumes of poetry: Wolf's Bane (1916), Mandragora (1917) and Samphire (1922). The first 2 collections were published by Powys's manager, G. Arnold Shaw. An unfinished, short narrative poem, "The Ridge," was published in January 1963, shortly before Powys's death that June.Review of English Literature, vol. IV, no.1, pp.53–58. In 1964 Kenneth Hopkins published John Cowper Powys: A selection from his poems, and in 1979 Welsh poet and critic Roland Mathias published The Hollowed-Out Elder Stalk: John Cowper Powys as poet.London: Enitharmon Press. Belinda Humfrey, suggests that "perhaps Powys's best poems are those given to Jason Otter in Wolf Solent and Taliessin in Porius.""Introduction" to Essays on John Cowper Powys, ed. Belinda Humfrey. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1972, p.24. Novels Wessex novels While he was a famous lecturer and published a variety of both fiction and non-fiction regularly from 1915, it was not until he was in his early 50s, with the publication of Wolf Solent in 1929, that he achieved critical and financial success as a novelist.C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1982, p. 90. This novel was reprinted several times in both the USA and Britain and translated into German in 1930 and French in 1931.Derek Langridge,'' John Cowper Powys: A Record of Achievement''. London: The Library Association, 1966, pp.115, 121 In the Preface he wrote for the 1961 Macdonald edition of the novel Powys states: "Wolf Solent is a book of Nostalgia, written in a foreign country with the pen of a traveller and the ink-blood of his home".1964 Penguin edition, p.11. Wolf Solent is set in Ramsgard, based on Sherborne, Dorset, where Powys attended school from May 1883, as well as Blacksod, modelled on Yeovil, Somerset, and Dorchester and Weymouth, both in Dorset, all places full of memories for him.Krissdottir, p.37 re school. In the same year The Meaning of Culture was published and it, too, was frequently reprinted. In Defence of Sensuality, published at the end of the following year, was yet another best seller. First published in 1933, A Philosophy of Solitude was another best seller for Powys in the USA.Derek Langridge, John Cowper Powys: A Record of Achievement Before Wolf Solent there had been 4 earlier apprentice novels; Wood and Stone (1915), Rodmoor (1916), the posthumous After my Fashion (1980), which was written around 1920, and Ducdame (1925).For After My Fahion, see Krissdottir, p.161 Wolf Solent was the first of the so-called Wessex novels, which include A Glastonbury Romance (1932), Weymouth Sands (1934) and Maiden Castle (1936).Williams, p.94. Powys was an admirer of Thomas Hardy, and these novels are set in Somerset and Dorset, part of Hardy's mythical Wessex.Powys's first novel Wood and Stone was dedicated to Thomas Hardy. It is set on the Dorset and Somerset border. American scholar Richard Maxwell describes these 4 novels "as remarkably successful with the reading public of his time"."Two Canons: On the Meaning of Powys's Relation to Scott and his Turn to Historical Fiction", Western Humanities Review, vol. LVII, no. 1, Spring 2003, p. 103. Maiden Castle, the last of the Wessex novels, is set in Dorchester, Thomas Hardy's Casterbridge, and which he intended to be a "rival" to Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge.Krissdottir, p.312. All the same, despite his indebtedness to the Victorian novel and his enthusiasm for Hardy and Walter Scott, as well as for lesser figures such as Ainsworth, Powys was clearly a modernist,See In the Spirit of Powys: New Essays, ed. Denis Lane, London: Associated Universities Presses, 1990, especially the "Foreword" by Jerome J. McGann and Lane's "Introduction". and has affinities also with Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Pater, Marcel Proust, Carl Gustav Jung, Sigmund Freud, D. H. Lawrence, James Joyce, and Dorothy Richardson.He published short studies of both Dostoievsky and Richardson and corresponded with Richardson; re Nietzsche, Pater, Proust, see references in Autobiography. Re Jung, see Morine Krissdottir's, Descents of Memory, pp.267–8, and Freud pp.403–4. hill fort has an important role in Powys's novel Maiden Castle]] It is clear from Powys's diaries that his newfound success was greatly helped by the stability that his relationship with Phyllis Playter gave him and her frequent advice on his work in progress.Morine Krissdottir's, Descents of Memory, p.281. A Glastonbury Romance sold particularly well in its British edition, though this was of little avail as it was the subject of an expensive libel case brought by Gerard Hodgkinson, the owner of the Wookey Hole Caves, who felt himself identifiably and unfairly portrayed in the character of Philip Crow.There were five impressions of the novel in Britain, but Morine Krissdottir suggests that it was less successful in the USA, A Descent of Memory. (New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007), p.263. Re the libel case, see Krissdottir pp.301–2, 304–8. According to Powys this novel's "heroine is the Grail","Preface" to A Glastonbury Romance. London: Macdonald, 1955, p.xiii. and its central concern is with the various myths, legends and history associated with Glastonbury. Not only is A Glastonbury Romance concerned with the legend that Joseph of Arimathea brought the Grail, a vessel containing the blood of Christ, to the town, but the further tradition that King Arthur was buried there.Krissdottir, p.251. In addition, one of the novel's main characters, the Welshman Owen Evans, introduces the idea that the Grail has a Welsh (Celtic), pagan, pre-Christian origin.See Ben Jones "The 'mysterious word Esplumeoir' and Polyphonic Structure" in A Glastonbury Romance in In the Spirit of Powys, p.80. The main sources for Powys's ideas on mythology and the Grail legend are Sir John Rhys's Studies in the Arthurian Legend, R. S. Loomis's Celtic Myth and Arthurian Romance, and the works of Jessie L. Weston, including From Ritual to Romance.Krissdottir, Morine. Descent of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys. London: Overlook Press, 2007, pp.252–3. T. S. Eliot's Waste Land is another possible influence.See Krissdottir, p.255. A central aspect of A Glastonbury Romance is the attempt by John Geard, ex-minister now the mayor of Glastonbury, to restore Glastonbury to its medieval glory as a place of religious pilgrimage.Krissdottir, p.252. On the other hand, the Glastonbury industrialist Philip Crow, along with John and Mary Crow and Tom Barter, who are, like him, from Norfolk, view the myths and legends of the town with contempt.See Cavaliero, pp..61-2. Philip's vision is of a future with more mines and more factories. John Crow, however, as he is penniless, takes on the task of organising a pageant for Geard. At the same time an alliance of Anarchists, Marxists, and Jacobins try to turn Glastonbury into a commune. Welsh novels , Corwen, locally known as Mynydd-y-Gaer, the hill fort where Powys completed Owen Glendower on 24 December 1939. It is also an important setting in Porius.]] While Welsh mythology was already important in A Glastonbury Romance and Maiden Castle it became even more important after he and Phyllis Playter moved to Corwen, Wales, in 1935, first in the minor novel Morwyn or The Vengeance of God (1937).See Wilson Knight The Saturnian Quest. London: Methuen, 1964, pp.39-40, 52-55, 65, 74-6. Another important element in Morwyn, is condemnation of animal cruelty, especially vivisection, a theme also found in Weymouth Sands (1934).For Morwyn see Herbert Williams, John Cowper Powys, p.130, and re Weymouth Sands Morine Krissdottir, Descents of Memory, p. 278; also John Cowper Powys, Autobiography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1934, pp.583–4, As a result, some writers have claimed Powys anticipated the modern animal rights movement.Richard Dudley Ryder, Animal revolution: changing attitudes toward speciesism. Berg Publishers, 2000, p.269.John M. Kistler, People Promoting and People Opposing Animal Rights: In Their Own Words. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002, p.161. There then followed 2 major historical novels set in Wales, Owen Glendower (1941)Issued 24 January 1941. Dante Thomas A Bibliography of the Principal Writings of John Cowper Powys and Porius: A romance of the Dark Ages (1951). The earliest deals with the rebellion of the Welsh Prince Owen Glendower (A.D.1400–16), while Porius takes place in the time of the mythic King Arthur (A.D. 499). However, Arthur is a minor character compared with the Welsh Prince Porius, and the King's magician Myrddin (Merlin). In both works, but especially Porius, Powys makes use of the mythology found in the Welsh classic The Mabinogion.See index of Morine Krissdottir's, Descents of Memory, for this. Porius is, for some, the crowning achievement of Powys's maturity, but others are repelled by its obscurity. It was originally severely cut for publication, but in recent years two attempts have been made to recreate Powys's original intent.Colgate University Press, 1994, ed. Wilbur T. Albrecht, and OverlookDuckworth, 2007, ed. Judith Bond and Morine Krissdottir. It is not surprising that Powys should, after he moved to Corwen, decide to begin a novel about Owen Glendower, because it was in Corwen that Owen's rebellion against Henry IV began on 16 September 1400,R. Rees Davies, The Revolt of Owain Glyn Dŵr (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 1995. ISBN 0-19-285336-8 when he formally assumed the ancestral title of Prince of Powys at his manor house of Glyndyfrdwy, then in the parish of Corwen.http://www.castlewales.com/gldwr_mt.html Glyndyfrdwy. In September 1935 Phyllis Playter had suggested that he should write an historical novel about Owen Glendower.Krissdóttir, p.325. An important aspect of Owen Glendower are historical parallels between the beginning of the fifteenth century and the late 1930s and early 1940s: "A sense of contemporataneousness is ever present in Owen Glendower. We are in a world of change like our own".Herbert Williams, John Cowper Powys (Brigend: Seren,, 1997), p.126. The novel was conceived at a time when the "Spanish Civil WarOn the April 26, 1937, two days after Powys began his novel, the Spanish town of Guernica, was bombed by the Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe. It inspired the painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso. was a major topic of public debate," and completed on 24 December 1939, a few months after World War II had begun.Charles Lock, "Owen Glendower and the Dashing of Expectations". The Powys Journal, vol. XV, 2005, p.71. Porius is set mainly in Corwen. The events in this novel take place during the week of "October 18, to October 25, A.D. 499", during a historical period when, Powys claims, "There appears to be an absolute blank, as far as documentary evidence goes, with regard to the history of Britain"."Historic Background to the Year of Grace A.D. 499", Porius (2007), p.17. This was in fact a time of major transition in the history of Britain, with the replacing of Roman traditions with Saxon rule, as well as the conversion of the British to Christianity.Powys Digital History Project: http://history.powys.org.uk/history/common/early1.html. There are again, as with Owen Glendower, parallels with contemporary history: "The Dark Ages and the 1930s are the periods of what Powys, in Yeatsian phrase calls 'appalling transition' ".Michael Ballin, "Porius and the Dialectic of History", p. 24. and there was the clear possibility of another "Saxon" invasion, when Powys began writing Porius in 1942.Michael Ballin, "Porius and the Cauldron of Rebirth", p217. In prefatory comments, probably written around 1949, at the time of the beginning of the Cold War, Powys suggests that, :As we contemplate the historic background to … the last year of the fifth century sic, it is impossible not to think of the background of human life from which we watch the first half of the twentieth century dissolve into the second half. As the old gods were departing then, so the old gods are departing now. And as the future was dark with the terrifying possibilities of human disaster then, so, today, are we confronted by the possibility of catastrophic world events."Historic Background to the Year of Grace A.D. 499", p.18. Powys also saw the period of Owen Glendower's rebellion taking place at the time of "one of the most momentous and startling epochs of transition that the world has known".'"Argument" to Owen Glendower. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1941, p.x. Just as the landscape of Dorset and Somerset, and the characters' deep personal relationships with it, had been of great importance in the great Wessex novels, so the landscape of Wales, especially that of the Corwen region, was now significant. The landscape and the intimate relationship that characters have with the elements, including the sky, wind, plants, animals, and insects, are of great significance in all Powys's works.See especially Denis Lane, "Elementalism in John Cowper Powys' Porius. Papers on Language and Literature 17, no. 4 (1981), pp.381–404. These are linked to another major influence on Powys, Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth"my great master", Autobiography (1967), p.275. and writers influenced by Wordsworth such as Walter Pater.Autobiography, pp.301, 391. Powys was also an admirer of Goethe and Rousseau.John Cowper Powys, Enjoyment of Literature, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1938, pp.276–308 and Autobiography (1967), p.626. Words such as mysticism''For Harald Fawkner, Powys is "one of the great mystic writers of all time". "''Porius and Exteriority", ''Powys Notes, vol.10, no.1, 1995, pp.28, 38.'' and pantheism''C. A. Coates, pp.152–3. are sometimes used in discussing Powys’s attitude to nature, but what he is concerned with is an ecstatic response to the natural world, epiphanies such as Wordsworth describes in his "Ode: Intimations of Immortality",''Autobiography (1967), pp.38, 286. with an important difference in that Powys believes that the ecstasy of the young child can be retained by any adult who actively cultivates the power of the imagination.See, for example, Harold Fawkner, The Ecstatic World of John Cowper Powys.London: Associated University Presses,1986, pp.34-8. Some have compared this to zen and such contemplative practices,Ichiro Hara, "John Cowper Powys and Zen". The Powys Review, vol. IIiii (no.7) Winter 1980, pp.24–34 and Cicely Hill "'Susukeshi Hina Mo': John Cowper Powys and the Chuang-Tse Legacy", The Powys Review (no.7), pp.34–44. and for Powys, and the protagonists of his novels who usually resemble him, the cultivation of a psycho-sensuous philosophy is as important as the Christian religion was for an earlier generation.See Powys's Autobiography (1967) pp.35, 414 and C. A Coates, pp. 151–3,165–9, especially. Late novels More minor in scale, the novels that followed Porius are characterized by an element of fantasy. The Inmates (1952) is set in a madhouse and explores Powys's interest in mental illness. But it is a work on which Powys failed to bestow sufficient "time and care".C. A. Coates, p.156. And Cavalierop.133. Glen Cavaliero in John Cowper Powys: Novelist describes the novels written after Porius as "the spontaneous fairy tales of Rabelaisian surrealist enchanted with life", and finds Atlantis (1954) "the richest and most sustained" of them.Cavaliero, pp. 131, 133. Atlantis is set in the Homeric world and the protagonist is Nisos the young son of Odysseus who plans to voyage west from Ithaca over the drowned Atlantis.G. Wilson Knight, p.93. Powys final fiction, such as Up and Out (1957) and All or Nothing (1960) "use the mode of science fiction, although science has no part in them".Coates, p.158. Non-fiction Autobiographical One of Powys's most important works, his Autobiography, was published in 1934. While he sets out to be totally frank about himself, and especially his sexual peculiarities and perversions, he largely excludes any substantial discussion of the women in his life.Krissdottir pp.287-294. The reason for this is now much clearer because we now know that it was written while he was still married to Margaret, though he was living in a permanent relationship with Phyllis Playter. Powys was also a prolific writer of letters, many of which have been published, and kept a diary from 1929; several diaries, including this one, have been published.Anthony Head, "Introduction" to The Diary of John Cowper Powys for 1929, ed. Anthony Head. London: Cecil Woolf, 1998, p7. Among his correspondents were novelists Theodore Dreiser, James Purdy, James Hanley, Henry Miller and Dorothy Richardson, but he also replied to many ordinary admirers who wrote to him.See letters of Theodore Dreisser, and for Purdy, Miller, Richardson, and others in the bibliography. With regard to James Hanley, letters can be found in the National Library of Wales and Liverpool Record Office and Local History Service. Philosophy and literature Periodically, over almost 50 years, starting with Confessions of Two Brothers in 1916, Powys wrote works that present his personal philosophy of life. These are not works of philosophy in the academic sense, and in a bookstore the appropriate section might be self-help. Powys describes A Philosophy of Solitude (1933) as a "short textbook of the various mental tricks by which the human soul can obtain … comparative happiness beneath the normal burden of human fate".John Cowper Powys, "Introduction to the English edition", A Philosophy of Solitude. London: Jonathan Cape, 1933, p.7. It might seem that Powys's various works of popular philosophy were mere potboilers, written to help their finances while he was working on his novels, but critics like Denis Lane, Harald Fawkner, and Janina Nordius believe that they give insight into "the intellectual structures that form the metastructures of the great novels".Harald Fawkner quoted by Janina Nordius in '"I Am Myself Alone",' p.16. Denis Lane frequently quotes from Powys's non-fiction in his "Introduction" to In the Spirit of Powys: New Essays. These works were frequently best sellers, especially in the USA. The Meaning of Culture published in 1929 went through twenty editions in Powys's lifetime.Anthony Head, p.7. In Defence of Sensuality, published at the end of the following year, was yet another best seller, as was A Philosophy of Solitude (1933). Literary criticism Taking advantage of his reputation as an itinerant lecturer, Powys published in 1915 a collection of literary essays, Visions and Revisions. This was published by the manager of his lecture tours, Arnold Shaw, as was the subsequent Suspended Judgements: Essays on Books and Sensations (1916) and One Hundred Best Books (1916). Visions and Revisions went through 4 impressions in 16 months.Krissdottir, p.127. In the next 30 years he published another collection of essays, The Enjoyment of Literature (1938) (The Pleasures of Literature in the UK), and three studies of writers, Dorothy Richardson (1931), Dostoievsky (1947), and Rabelais (1948), as well as essays in journals on various writers, including Theodore Dreiser, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and D.H. Lawrence.See Langridge. There is also a work on John Keats, part of which was published posthumously, and a study of Aristophanes that Powys was working on in his later years.John Cowper Powys. John Keats: or Popular Paganism, ed. Cedric Hentschel. London: Cecil Woolf, 1993. Re Aristophanes see Morine Krissdottir's, Descents of Memory, p.409. Powys's literary criticism was generally well received by reviewers and Morine Krissdottir in her recent biography of Powys describes the essays in Suspended Judgements as "fine criticism".Krissdottir, p.152. For another example see Percy Hutchinson, "Adventures Among Masterpieces", New York Times Book Review, 20 November 1938, p.2. With regard to The Pleasures of Literature, writer Kenneth Hopkins states that "if ever there was a book of criticism for the general reader, this is it".The Powys Brothers: A biographical appreciation. Southrepps, Norfolk: Warren House Press, 1967, p.228. In the 1940s Powys wrote books on two of his favourite authors, Dostoievsky (1946) and Rabelais (1948). The latter was particularly praised by a number of reviewers. Rabelais scholar Donald M. Frame, for example, in the Romantic Review, December 1951, describes Powys's translation (which was of only a quarter of Rabelais) "the best we have in English".Quoted by W. J. Keith "John Cowper Powys and Rabelais". la letter powysienne, no.20, Autumn, 2010, p.38. Critical reputation Cowper Powys is a somewhat controversial writer "who evokes both massive contempt and near idolatry".C. A. Coates, John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape (179) Thus while Walter Allen in Tradition and Dream recognizes Powys's genius, he is dissatisfied with what Powys has done with it, seeing Powys's approach to the novel, as "so alien to the temper of the age as to be impossible for many people to take seriously".Quoted. By C.A. Coates Annie Dillard, however, views things quite differently: "John Cowper Powys is a powerful genius, whose novels stir us deeply."Writers Choice: A Library of Rediscoveries. Ed. Katz and Katz (95) What is noteworthy is that throughout his career he consistently gained the admiration of novelists as diverse as Theodore Dreiser, Henry Miller, Iris Murdoch, Margaret Drabble,A Guardian article Aug. 2006 by Margaret Drabble: Overview of works and career of Powys and James Purdy, as well as the academic critics George Painter, G. Wilson Knight, George Steiner,: [http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1988/05/02/1988_05_02_116_TNY_CARDS_000139392 Review by George Steiner in the New Yorker, 2 May 1988] Harald Fawkner, and Jerome McGann. In his autobiography, film director John Boorman wrote that he had contemplated a movie adaptation of A Glastonbury Romance early in his careerhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/sep/13/film.highereducation David Thomson, "Making masterpieces": a review of John Boorman's Adventures of a Suburban Boy. The Guardian, Saturday 13 September 2003. Recognition In 1958 "Powys was presented with the Bronze Plaque of the Hamburg Free Academy of Arts in recognition of his outstanding services to literature and philosophy".Langridge, p.201. On 23 July 1962, Powys, who was 90, was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters in absentia, by the University of Wales at Swansea, where he was described as "patriarch of the literature of these islands".Langridge, p.217. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958, 1959 and 1962.http://www.nobelprize.org/nomination/archive/show_people.php?id=12411 Philip Larkin included Powys's poem "In A Hotel Writing-Room" in the Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse (1973). Publications Poetry *''Odes, and other poems. London: William Rider, 1896. *Poems. London: William Rider, 1899. *Wolf's-Bane: Rhymes. London: William Rider, 1916; New York: G.A. Shaw, 1916. *Mandragora. New York: G.A. Shaw, 1917. *Samphire. New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1922. *''Lucifer: A poem. London: Macdonald, 1956. *''The Death of God: A poem''. London: Macdonald, 1956. *''John Cowper Powys: A selection from his poems'' (edited by Kenneth Hopkins). London: Macdonald, 1964; Hamilton, NY: Colgate University Press, 1964. Novels *''Wood and Stone: A romance. New York: G.A. Shaw, 1915; London: Heinemann, 1915. *Rodmoor: A romance. New York: G.A. Shaw, 1916. *''After My Fashion (written 1919). London: Picdor, 1980; London: Pan, 1980. *''Ducdame'', London: Grant Richards, 1925; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, 1925. *''Wolf Solent: A novel. London: Cape, 1929; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1929. *''A Glastonbury Romance. New York: Simon & Schustre, 1932; London: Bodley Head, 1933. *''Weymouth Sands: A novel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1934. **edited & published in UK as ''Jobber Skald. London: John Lane, 1935. *''Maiden Castle''. London: Cassell, 1936; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1936. *''Morwyn; or, The vengeance of God''. London: Cassell, 1937. *''Owen Glendower: A historical novel''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940; London: John Lane, 1941. *''Porius: A romance of the Dark Ages''. London: Macdonald, 1951; New York: Philosophical Library, 1952. *''Atlantis''. Lonon: Macdonald, 1954. *''The Brazen Head''. London: Macdonald, 1956; Hamilton, NY: Colgate University Press, 1956. *''Homer and the Aether''. London: Macdonald, 1959; ; Hamilton, NY: Colgate University Press, 1959. *''All or Nothing''. London: Macdonald, 1960; Hamilton, NY: Colgate University Press, 1960. Short fiction *''The Owl, The Duck, and – Miss Rowe! Miss Rowe!. Chicago: Black Archer Press, 1930. *''Up and Out / Mountains of the Moon (2 novellas). London: Macdonald, 1957. *''Romer Mowl, and other stories''. St. Peter Port, Guernsey: Toucan Press, 1974. *''Real Wraiths'' (novella). London: Village Press, 1974. *''Two and Two'' (novella). London: Village Press, 1974. *''You and Me'' (novella). London: Village Press, 1975. *''Three Fantasies'' (Abertackle, Cataclysm, Topsy-Turvy; edited by Glen Cavaliero). Manchester, UK: Carcanet, 1985. Non-fiction *''Confessions of Two Brothers'' (with Llewelyn Powys). Rochester, NY: Manas Press, 1916. *''Autobiography''. London: John Lane, 1934; New York: Simon & Schuster, 1934. Philosophy *''The War and Culture: A reply to Professor Münsterberg. New York: G.A. Shaw, 1914. *The Complex Vision. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1920. *''Psychoanalysis and Morality. San Francisco: J. Colbert, 1923. *''The Art of Happiness''. Girard, KS: Haldemand-Julius, 1923; London: John Lane, 1935. *''The Meaning of Culture''. New York: Norton, 1929; London: Cape, 1930. *''In Defence of Sensuality''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1930; London: Gollanca, 1930. *''A Philosophy of Solitude''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1933; London: Cape, 1933. *''Mortal Strife''. London: Cape, 1942. *''The Art of Growing Old''. London: Cape, 1944. *''In Spite of: A philosophy for everyman''. London: Macdonald, 1953; New York: Philosophical Library, 1953. Criticism and essays *''Visions and Revisions: A book of literary devotions. New York: G.A. Shaw / London: W. Rider, 1915. *Suspended Judgements: Essays on books and sensations. New York: G.A. Shaw, 1916. *One Hundred Best Books: With commentary, and an essay on books and reading. New York: G.A. Shaw, 1916. *''Dorothy Richardson. London: Joiner & Steele, 1931. *''Enjoyment of Literature''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1938; **published in UK as The Pleasures of Literature. London: Cassell, 1938. *''Obstinate Cymric: Essays, 1935–1947''. Carmarthen, Wales, UK: Druid Press, 1947. *''Powys on Keats'' (edited by Cedric Hentschel). London: Cecil Woolf, 1993. Translated *''Rabelais: His life, the story told by him, selections therefrom here newly translated, and an interpretation of his genius and his religion''. London: Bodley Head, 1948; New York: Philosophical Library, 1951. Letters and journals Diaries *''The Diary of John Cowper Powys, 1930'' (edited by Frederick Davies). London: Greymitre Books, 1987. *''The Diary of John Cowper Powys, 1931'' (edited by Francis Powys). London: Jeffrey Kwinter, 1990. *''Petrushka and the Dancer: The diaries of John Cowper Powys, 1929–1939'' (edited by Morine Krissdóttir). Manchester, UK: Carcanet / New York: St. Martin’s Press / Paris: Alyscamps, 1995. *''The Diary of John Cowper Powys for 1929'' (edited by Anthony Head). London: Cecil Woolf, 1998. *''The Dorset Year: The diary of John Cowper Powys, June 1934-July 1935'' (edited by Morine Krissdottir & Roger Peers). Kilmersdon, UK: Powys Press, 1998. Letters *''Letters of John Cowper Powys to Louis Wilkinson 1935–1956''. London: Macdonald, 1958. *''Letters from John Cowper Powys to Glyn Hughes''. Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK: Ore Publications, 1971. *''Letters to Nicholas Ross'' (selected by Nicholas & Adelaide Ross, edited by Arthur Uphill). London: London: Bertram Rota, 1971. *''John Cowper Powys: Letters, 1937–54''(edited by Iorwerth C. Peate). Cardiff, UK: University of Wales Press, 1974. *''Letters to Henry Miller from John Cowper Powys'' (edited by Ronald Hall). London: Village Press, 1975. *''Letters of John Cowper Powys to His Brother Llewelyn'' (edited by Malcolm Elwin). (2 volumes), London: Village Press, 1975. *''Letters from John Cowper Powys to C. Benson Roberts''. London: Village Press, 1975. *''Letters of John Cowper Powys to G.R. Wilson Knight'' (edited by R.L. Blackmore). London: Cecil Woolf, 1983. *''The Letters of John Cowper Powys to Sven-Erik Täckmark'' . London: Cecil Woolf, 1983. *''The Letters of John Cowper Powys to Ichiro Hara'' (edited by Anthony Head). London: Cecil Woolf, 1990. *''The Letters of John Cowper Powys to Hal W. and Violet Trovillion'' (edited by Paul Roberts). London: Cecil Woolf, 1990. *''The Letters of John Cowper Powys to Frances Gregg'' (edited by Oliver Wilkinson, assisted by Christopher Wilkinson). (2 volumes), London: Cecil Woolf, 1994-1996. *''Letters of John Cowper Powys to Philipa Powys'' (edited by Anthony Head). London: Cecil Woolf, 1996. *''The Letters of John Cowper Powys and Dorothy Richardson'' (edited by Janet Fouli). London: Cevil Woolf, 2008. *''Powys and Emma Goldman: Letters of John Cowper Powys and Emma Goldman'', ed. David Goodway (2008) Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:John Cowper Powys, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, July 24, 2015. See also *Anglo-Welsh poets *List of British poets *List of literary critics References Biography and critical studies *Cavaliero, Glen. John Cowper Powys, Novelist *Coates, C.A. John Cowper Powys in Search of a Landscape. Totowa, NJ: Barnes & Noble, 1982. *Graves, Richard Perceval. The Brothers Powys (1983) *Hooker, Jeremy. John Cowper Powys. Cardiff (1973) *Humfrey, Belinda, ed.The Powys Review. Index to critical articles and other material: http://www.powys-lannion.net/Powys/PowysRev/Contents.htm *Knight, G. Wilson. The Saturnian Quest *Krissdottir, Morine. Descents of Memory: The Life of John Cowper Powys. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2007 *Lane, Denis, ed. In the Spirit of Powys: New Essays. New York (1990) *Nordius, Janina. I Am Myself Alone: Solitude and Transcendence in John Cowper Powys *Peltier, Jacqueline, ed. la lettre powysienne. Index to critical articles and other material: http://www.powys-lannion.net/Powys/LettrePowysienne/PowysLettreIndex.pdf *Williams, Herbert. John Cowper Powys. (1997) Bibliographical *Langridge, Derek. John Cowper Powys: A record of achievement (1966) *Thomas, Dante. A Bibliography of the Principal Writings of John Cowper Powys, Ph.D, State University of New York, at Albany, 1971. Published as A Bibliography of the Writings of John Cowper Powys. Mamaroneck, NY: Appel, 1975. Notes External links ;Poems *"Wood and Stones" at AllPoetry *Powys in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "The Hope," "The Riddle" *"Wallalone" (an unpublished poem, with commentary) ;Books * ;Audio / video * ;Books *John Cowper Powys at Amazon.com ;About *John Cowper Powys in the Encyclopædia Britannica *John Cowper Powys at NNDB *Acquiring a taste for John Cowper Powys, The Guardian *"John Cowper Powys, poetry, and the meaning of culture" by David X. Novak *Un site Powys: bilingual French/English Powys site with numerous links to other relevant sites] ;Etc. *British Powys Society, with various resources and links Category:1872 births Category:1963 deaths Category:People from Derbyshire Category:Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Category:English poets Category:English essayists Category:English novelists Category:English historical novelists Category:English literary critics Category:English non-fiction writers Category:English philosophers Category:Modernist writers Category:Welsh poets Category:Welsh essayists Category:Welsh fantasy writers Category:Welsh historical novelists Category:Welsh non-fiction writers Category:Welsh philosophers Category:Welsh anarchists Category:English anti-fascists Category:People from Blaenau Ffestiniog Category:20th-century Welsh writers Category:People educated at Sherborne School Category:English anarchists Category:English male writers Category:Male essayists Category:Male poets Category:Male novelists Category:20th-century poets Category:Anglo-Welsh poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets